To see accurate pricing, please choose your delivery country.
 
 
United States
£ GBP
All Shops

British Wildlife

8 issues per year 84 pages per issue Subscription only

British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Published eight times a year, British Wildlife bridges the gap between popular writing and scientific literature through a combination of long-form articles, regular columns and reports, book reviews and letters.

Subscriptions from £33 per year

Conservation Land Management

4 issues per year 44 pages per issue Subscription only

Conservation Land Management (CLM) is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles. CLM includes long-form articles, events listings, publication reviews, new product information and updates, reports of conferences and letters.

Subscriptions from £26 per year
Academic & Professional Books  Natural History  Regional Natural History  Natural History of the Americas

The Emerald Horizon The History of Nature in Iowa

By: Cornelia Mutel(Author)
280 pages, 26 b/w & 12 colour photos, 14 illustrations, 6 maps
The Emerald Horizon
Click to have a closer look
  • The Emerald Horizon ISBN: 9781587296321 Paperback Apr 2008 Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 2-3 weeks
    £23.95
    #200159
Price: £23.95
About this book Contents Customer reviews Related titles

About this book

In The Emerald Horizon, Cornelia Mutel combines lyrical writing with meticulous scientific research to portray the environmental past, present, and future of Iowa. In doing so, she ties all of Iowa's natural features into one comprehensive whole.

Since so much of the tallgrass state has been transformed into an agricultural landscape, Mutel focuses on understanding today's natural environment by understanding yesterday's changes. After summarizing the geological, archaeological, and ecological features that shaped Iowa's modern landscape, she recreates the once-wild native communities that existed prior to Euroamerican settlement. Next she examines the dramatic changes that overtook native plant and animal communities as Iowa's prairies, woodlands, and wetlands were transformed. Finally she presents realistic techniques for restoring native species and ecological processes as well as a broad variety of ways in which Iowans can reconnect with the natural world. Throughout, in addition to the many illustrations commissioned for this book, she offers careful scientific exposition, a strong sense of respect for the land, and encouragement to protect the future by learning from the past.

The "emerald prairie" that "gleamed and shone to the horizon's edge," as botanist Thomas Macbride described it in 1895, has vanished. Cornelia Mutel's passionate dedication to restoring this damaged landscape – and by extension the transformed landscape of the entire Corn Belt – invigorates her blend of natural history and human history. Believing that citizens who are knowledgeable about native species, communities, and ecological processes will better care for them, she gives us hope – and sound suggestions – for the future.

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Prologue

1. Setting the Stage
2. A Miracle of Sight, Scent, and Sound
3. The Great Transformation
4. Prairies Today
5. Oak Woodlands and Bottomland Forests Today
6. Restoring Nature's Systems
7. Present Quandaries, Future Quests

Epilogue
Appendix. Common and Scientific Names of Native and Naturalized Plants in the Text
Bibliographic Acknowledgments
References Cited
Index

 

Customer Reviews

By: Cornelia Mutel(Author)
280 pages, 26 b/w & 12 colour photos, 14 illustrations, 6 maps
Media reviews

"Nature for many today is the drainage creek down the block or the wooded ravine leading away from the highway. The Emerald Horizon rolls back the clock to a time when Iowa was a checkerboard of wetlands that turned seamlessly to oceans of native grasses; when fire, wind, and rivers determined whether prairies or woodlands rose from the rich soil. Mutel shows Iowa as a dynamic, almost breathing life form, altered nearly beyond recognition in just a few decades. This book offers hope for restoring the land but the key will come from those who read this book and take it to heart."
- Joe Wilkinson, president, Iowa Wildlife Federation

"The Emerald Horizon conveys a vivid, accurate, and thoughtfully constructed story of Iowa's natural history. Not only has Mutel translated a complex history of natural and anthropogenic factors into an explanation of Iowa's former and current landscapes, she also presents a call for restorative action. The loss of so much of Iowa's natural heritage is heartbreaking, but The Emerald Horizon provides the reason and encouragement we need to protect and restore what we have left."
- Thomas Rosburg, Drake University

"Mutel has written a poetic history of our compromised land – and she has a vision for returning diversity and community to the Iowa landscape."
- Teresa Opheim, executive director, Practical Farmers of Iowa

 

Current promotions
New and Forthcoming BooksNHBS Moth TrapBritish Wildlife MagazineBuyers Guides